THUNDER BAY – On the day residents were vaccinated at the Walford retirement home in Thunder Bay, a staff member tested positive for COVID-19 and may have been inside the complex before it was discovered.
However, Shane Muir said the good news is that Superior North EMS has completed vaccinations at the residence, where 32 cases of the virus have been detected over the past few days.
“We know that COVID-19 was in the building and there was a small chance that it did spread at that time,” he said.
“We were lucky we got the vaccine when we did. It bought some time and gave some time for the vaccine to work.”
Muir said the entire facility was given their first shot of the vaccine on March 4, but it’s noted it’s certainly not an immediate barrier to the virus.
The first cases were announced on March 10.
“It does take time for the vaccine to work, and that’s one thing we want to caution people, is that the vaccine doesn’t work right away,” Muir said.
“It can take up to two weeks to work. Something else to note is they’ve only had their first dose. We are finding the vaccine is starting to be effective. We’re finding there are very low-grade symptoms. A lot of the residents that have come back positive are asymptomatic and a high number of them are asymptomatic in the building,” Muir said.
“That goes for staff as well.”
Muir added the vaccine appears to have enough time to somewhat take effect and is preventing the more severe symptoms that can be associated with COVID-19, particularly in the senior population.
There is, however, still spread in the building.
“That’s one thing that we’ve noted. But a lot of that spread is asymptomatic spread,” Muir said. “So the residents aren’t finding they are having any kind of symptoms, nothing that’s requiring them to be hospitalized or emerg(ency) or the ICU."
“Most are able to be treated onsite, and they do have some medical support there as well that is providing quality medical care to the residents at The Walford.”
